


Five times Stefan thought he loved Caroline and one time he finally said it.

by nostalgic_disaster



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 21:31:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1201384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgic_disaster/pseuds/nostalgic_disaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years had passed since he last saw Elena. It had been such a turbulent time in his life, but he thought he had finally gotten through it, he was always going to think fondly of her, but he understood now why things had happened the way they had and he was glad she was happy, she deserved it, and he was finally getting to that himself.</p>
<p>And most of his newfound happiness, he owed it to Caroline Forbes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Stefan thought he loved Caroline and one time he finally said it.

**One**

Years had passed since he last saw Elena. It had been such a turbulent time in his life, but he thought he had finally gotten through it, he was always going to think fondly of her, but he understood now why things had happened the way they had and he was glad she was happy, she deserved it, and he was finally getting to that himself.

And most of his newfound happiness, he owed it to Caroline Forbes.

At first he thought she reminded him of Lexi, and for a while their friendship kept growing and he believed he had found someone who understood him as much as Lexi, but now looking at Caroline packing her bag he was beginning to think his feelings might be slightly different.

She had turned into his best friend and his most trusted and best companionship. They had been traveling for a few years now, Caroline wanted to see the world and try new things, Stefan needed to get away from Mystic Falls and they both wanted to stay together. So they had started a new journey together, and now that it had come to an end, Stefan didn’t want to fathom how being without Caroline would be like.

It wasn’t just that she was a great friend or that he could talk to her, he loved hearing her too, and he found that what other people thought was annoying of her, was extremely adorable for him. Her being bossy and a “control freak”? Sure, it could get on his nerves, but it didn’t, he understood why she was like that and even if he didn’t, he wouldn’t dare change her, and besides she was doing a great effort of trying to be more calm.

Now, looking at her, her blonde hair falling down her face, her delicate hands folding clothes and putting things away, he could help but feel like he was falling in love with her. But he couldn’t tell her, it’d freak her out.

“Stefan, you are staring at me. What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“OK, be weird.”

“It’s just I’m going to miss this…”

She stopped what she was doing and stared back at him. She seemed surprised at what he had said. But after a few seconds she smiled and said, “Yeah, me too.”

That smile.

Yes, he definitely loved Caroline Forbes.

 

**Two**

They were sitting next to each other on the plane on their way home. They had been watching a movie and Caroline had fallen asleep. With her head on Stefan’s shoulder. Great. This was turning into a bad romantic comedy or something.

Stefan was sure that if he had been human his heart would have been trying to beat out of his chest.

He was trying not to be creepy, and stay on friendly terms, he wasn’t going to break Caroline’s trust or step over her boundaries, but he had to admit to himself she smelled really good. And now that he thought about it, he noticed that THAT vanilla scent had been the one that had invaded their entire trip. It was a nice smell, he had noticed it at first, but since they had been spending so much time together he stopped noticing it, he had grown used to it; but now that he had noticed it again he couldn’t help but pick it apart and with it the thousand memories he had with this girl next to him. He loved her, and it couldn’t be said that it was because they had been together all these years, it was HER. Just like this vanilla scent, it was exactly what he needed but only noticed after all this time.

 

**Three**

“Stefan! You can do this. You have been doing it, it’s okay. I’m here.”

It had happened again. He had slipped. One more time. This couldn’t be happening. How many years had passed since he had stopped being “The Ripper”? Definitely, a lot. But it still felt like was struggling to overcome his desire for human blood like the first time. It was almost unbearable, it would have been if Caroline hadn’t been there for him.

“Stefan, look. Look at me.”

She grabbed his face and made him look at her. They were so close, he could see the worry in her eyes, he felt it in the way she held him. But he could still smell that woman’s blood and it wasn’t letting him concentrate enough on Caroline’s words.

“You are not this. You never have been.”

She tried to help him stand up. But he couldn’t, not yet.

She gave up and stayed sitting and dropped her face into his, they were forehead to forehead and he closed his eyes. Without really wanting to he sighed, and it brought some of Caroline’s scent into him, he smelled vanilla and opened his eyes.

“Stefan.”

Her smell. It made him forget about “The Ripper”, it brought him back.

“Caroline.”

“You are okay.”

Her hand on his cheek. Her eyes on his.

“I’ll take you home Stefan.”

But, he was already home.

 

**Four**

A few days after the blood incident, Caroline was blasting pop music full on the house and said she wanted to dance. Stefan suspected she was trying to cheer him up, but he went ahead with it, as long as she was happy.

It was one of those weird happy songs she liked, but her total abandon in losing herself in the music was making him happier that he had been for the past few days. She had her eyes closed and was moving to the rhythm coming off from the speakers. When she opened her eyes she caught him looking at her, and she gave him this mischievous smile. Oh, crap.

Caroline danced her way to him, grabbed him by his hands and tried to make him move with her. It wasn’t long until he was dancing to the beat of the song, it seemed like the last time he had danced was centuries ago, which probably was.

Jumping around they had closed the distance between each other. It was so easy to lose himself in Caroline and her happiness, the feel of her body moving with his. She made him remember the good things. She made him want to be human again.

Her hips and his hips, her hands on his shoulders, his on her back, the music, twirling, Caroline’s laugh, loving again.

 

**Five**

“Caroline I brought some blood bags. We ran out of them this morning.”

“Thanks Stefan. Come look at this!”

“What are you doing?”

“This house has looked the same for years. I decided to change the look of things around a bit.”

“And you had to put that painting there?”

“Hey! I think it looks great, it’s not my fault you have bad taste.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. She was smiling too.

“Oh, and I found something while I was moving things around.”

She brought it to him, it was one of his old diaries.

“Wow, I hadn’t seen this for a while now. Not since…”

“Yeah, I figured.”

Absently, he thanked her. “Thanks. And the house does look great.”

Frowning at the diary in his hand he went up to his room and started reading. God, he had forgotten all about this. Maybe it was a bad idea, there were too many memories of Elena.

He spent the night checking it out and in the morning he was still thinking about it when a knock to his door brought him to the present.

“Hey.”

“Morning.”

“I brought you something.”

Caroline came around and sat down in the bed next to him. She was holding a squared shape wrapped with paper.

“I figured you might need a new start.”

She gave it to him and he opened it.

It was a new diary.

“Caroline…” Staring at the black journal, it brought tears to his face.

She brought her hand to his face and caressed his cheek, made him look at her.

“You can write about the good things. About how you have changed.”

He hugged her and he never wanted to let her go.

 

**Six**

“Fine Stefan! Be that way! Do whatever you want. I don’t care!”

“Caroline…”

“I mean, seriously. You know how he is, I get that he’s your brother, but I still think you shouldn’t go with him. He’s an asshole.”

“Caroline…”

“Yeah, and now you are going to be all “Caroline, I know he’s like that, but he’s the only family I have left blahblah”, well Stefan, what about me?!”

He looked at her. She was his family. He knew that. But he also wanted her to be something else. He had to get away from her for a while, it wasn’t fair to her but he had to, he didn’t want to ruin things, he couldn’t help how he felt about her anymore, it had become a force of its own. Every time he looked at her, every time she touched him, he wanted to kiss her, to tell her that he loved her but he was sure she didn’t feel the same way.

“Caroline…”

“Don’t.”

“You ARE my family. But I need this.”

She was crying, but he couldn’t understand why. It’s not like he was leaving forever, he just needed some time apart, and he was sure she’d enjoy it, maybe going out with other friends.

“I don’t understand why. Is it because I’m THAT bad to be around with that you’d rather hang out with DAMON?”

“What? NO. If that’s what you think you are crazy.”

“Well Stefan, maybe I am crazy. But it’s you who’s driving me crazy.”

“…what do you mean?” Had he hurt her? He couldn’t live with himself if he had.

“I…you! UGH! It’s just SO frustrating how blind you are. I’ve had feelings for you for years now! And you don’t even notice or care! I’m an idiot for thinking I even had a chance. That you might feel the same way.”

Had he heard right? Was she saying the truth? Of course, Caroline hated lying and even if it was a lie, why would she do it? But, wow, she had been feeling the same way for him and he hadn’t even realized? Maybe he had been too busy trying to figure out how he felt and then trying to conceal it. They had wasted so much time.

“I love you so much Stefan, and it’s killing me. I can’t take it anymore. I know you’ll never love me like that or how you loved Elena. But I had to say it, hiding it was driving me crazy. So yeah, go ahead, leave, go to Damon, whatever, I…”

Stefan closed the distance between them and grabbing her face, he finally did what he had wanted to for all these years, he kissed her, and it was better than he could ever imagine. God, Caroline.

She clung to him, and he couldn’t have enough of her, her skin, her hair, her arms, her lips, it was like she was a lifeline, how could he have gone on for so long without this? The taste of her, the feel of her hands holding him in place, her hips against him, the soft hair, her little moans and her voice whispering his name.

When he pulled apart he had to make an effort, getting away from her was like refusing to live.

“I love you too Caroline. How I felt about Elena, doesn’t even compare to this. I need you. I’ve felt this way for the past decade. How is it that neither of us noticed earlier?”

She looked at him, trying to decipher is he was telling the truth. Stefan felt like the only way for her to know how much he meant it was to show her. So, he kissed her again, this time slowly and then faster, trying to convey with his kiss the way his heart would have been beating if it could, and if he had to spent the rest of their lives making up for the lost time, he felt it was the best way to spend forever.


End file.
